Reddit mentions of Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters

A lot of the people I recommend draw a box to get very OCD about it and take, in my opinion, way too long on the exercises. So yes that's what I recommend but with the exception that you don't get precious about the program- just take as long as uncomfortable recommends.

For instance, I have a friend that will not move on to lesson 2 until he can do rotated boxes perfectly, even though it says right in the tutorial it's introducing more difficult stuff to challenge you. So IMO that friend will likely never do lesson 2, because he got discouraged he couldn't rotate the boxes. The sad part is that I know having done it if he'd just try and fail and move on and come back to it after a few lessons he'd ace the darn boxes.

In difficulty, figure drawing eclipses any other type of drawing, so that's the main reason I suggest do draw a box, it will build motor skills and confidence. As far as realist schools of thought, I can't recommend Robert Beverly Hale highly enough, he preaches constructive art, and not merely drawing what you see but also what you know. In fact, one of the first pages in "Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters" is several men an artist drew which he constructed out of cubes, and even with the simple cube setup the author points out all the anotomical knowledge the artist emphasizes, even on a cube he clearly made points for the sternum, sacrum, 7th vertebrate, etc etc.

Proko and Vilppu can speak more authoritatively on the matter than I can, but from the gist of it naturalist methods are more time consuming because the method is considered arcane (not valueless, just kind of obsolete), because you make a mark, measure your mark, compare, erase. Repeat until perfect. You just keep measuring things and it's kind of formulaic and route.

If you haven't already, check out some Bargue plates. They are not anywhere near drawing from life or a plaster cast, but they are an excellent way to distill form, and to "see" form better than you've ever imagined. Seriously just look at this foot it is the epitome of "footiness" and once you reproduce it and other Bargue plates exactly you just see things different.

Charles Bargue was a virtuoso artist, who rendered 3 sets of plates of, I believe, 100 drawings each, for apprentices to reproduce on the road to mastery. He drew them purposefully with no cast shadows on the model (meaning the nose or other body parts don't interfere with the form by casting a shadow) and they are similar to what you'd see if you stuck a plaster casting in a very bright but also very diffuse pure white lightbox. This obscure and arcane method has been used by Van Gogh, Dali, and even the impressionists Monet and Manet, who were the last people to apprentice under a proper Bargue atelier; after they learned how to be master draftsman, they swore off drawing black and white but went on to change how we see light.

So while definitively a naturalist method, Bargue plates are great learning tools nonetheless. For me they work perfectly for something to draw to stay sharp when I don't feel like producing an original composition, it's a great non-consequential practice tool.

The best figure artist of all time imo is Gustav Klimt and I mention him because I think one can learn a lot just by deeply viewing his work. He would have models lie down on a bed so they looked gravity defying in their stances, just such virtuosity you should check him out, especially the sketch for Medicine which he did in only 30 minutes. He demonstrates the pinnacle of knowing your subject matter.

Hahaha just realized you mentioned Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters further down below, along with Bargue plates. Thanks again!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2433658/Andrew-Loomis-Figure-Drawing-For-All-its-Worth

and

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Lessons-Great-Masters-Anniversary/dp/0823014010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302320757&sr=1-1-catcorr

Two figure classes I've taken have basically been taught straight out of these two books. There are others too that are as good or better. But that is a good starting place.